جهانی شدن بسته بندی مجدد : یک مطالعه موردی از صنعت تبلیغات در چین

This paper analyzes the transformation of China’s advertising industry as a result of China’s economic reforms and the globalization of the advertising industry. Spatially clustered in the city-regions of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the industry has been structurally and operationally integrated with the global advertising giants, as well as developing local strategies to attract the interest of local consumer markets. While the entry of global multinational advertising businesses has compelled China’s advertisers to accept and adapt to the industry’s globalized institutions, standards, operational procedures and corporate culture, the transformation of China’s advertising industry is best understood as a consequence of the interaction between globalization and localization.

Economic globalization is redefining China’s regional spatial structure. Since the country embarked on its program of economic reforms in 1979, the introduction of market mechanisms, the arrival of foreign investments, the expansion of international trade, and increasing global flows of information, people, and technology have fundamentally changed China’s economy and society. However, the effects of globalization on a given nation or region are never evenly distributed across different spaces and social sectors, and its impact on local institutions and culture is far from homogeneous. This paper focuses on the advertising industry, an important part of the producer services sector1 that has become increasingly globalized in the last two decades. Specifically, the paper will assess how the advertising industry in China has been affected by the globalization of the industry and their spatial and operational consequences. Advertising globalization is the vanguard in opening up new markets for the influx of global commodities. By linking consumer products, mass media and regional markets together, the globalizing advertising industry has significantly reshaped local consumer cultures while at the same time moving local places closer to global networks of economic production and distribution. This case study of China will provide some evidence for these developments.

Advertising has played a key role in helping global commodities break into China’s newly developed consumer markets. As it grew in size, China’s advertising industry has also been reorganized and its modes of operation significantly altered by the industry’s global winds of change. As a highly globalized and conglomerated industry, the operational standards of China’s advertising industry have been significantly professionalized and upgraded, with the advertising agencies’ organizational structures and behavior shifting increasingly in the direction of multinational agencies. Business standards and the modes of operation are moving closer to those of the 4A. Over the past decade, branch offices of multinationals in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou have brought China’s advertising industry closer to the global norm, a fact that reflects the dominance of the capital-intensive multinational advertising groups in China. In terms of spatial distribution, China’s advertising is clustered in the city-regions of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou where agencies enjoy the locational advantages of proximity to information, clients and local markets, easy access to supporting professional services agglomerated around advertising, and the subsequent economies of scale. Agglomeration of advertising agencies and related supply chains is reinforced by increasing professionalization and globalization of advertising which demand supporting producer services. In turn, the development of the supply chains through the process of spatial clustering contributes to the dynamics of China’s burgeoning city-regions. With the formation of a national advertising market, China’s advertisers need media plans and promotional campaigns to be tailored to the needs of the regional markets. This has led to the proliferation of local versions of standardized global advertising, which is, in turn, facilitating the penetration of global advertising culture and reinforcing the power of globalization.